The invention relates to high-strength, beryllium-free, molded zirconium alloy objects which are plastically deformable at room temperature.
Such molded objects can be used as high-stressed components, for example, in the aircraft industry, in space travel and also in the automobile industry, but also for medical equipment and implants in the medical area, when the mechanical load-carrying capability, the corrosion resistance and the surface stresses must satisfy high requirements, especially in the case of components having a complicated shape.
It is well known that certain multicomponent, metallic materials can be transformed into a metastable, glassy state (metallic glasses) by rapid solidification, in order to obtain advantageous properties, such as soft magnetic, mechanical and/or catalytic properties. Because of the cooling rate required for the melt, most of these materials can be produced only with small dimensions in at least one direction, for example, as thin strips or powders. With that, they are unsuitable as solid construction materials (see, for example, B. T. Masumoto, Mater. Sci. Eng. A179/180 (1994) 8-16).